Responses to the Coup d'etat in Honduras on Sunday June 28, with special emphasis on producing English-language versions of commentaries by Honduran scholars and editorial writers and addressing the confusion encouraged by lack of basic knowledge about Honduras.

Monday, September 7, 2009

IMF Denies Funds

El Heraldo is reporting at 11 AM in Honduras that the IMF issued an announcement on Sunday stating the de facto government of Roberto Micheletti cannot use the $163 million allocated by the IMF because it has not yet decided to recognize that government.

"The present de facto regime cannot use these funds because [the IMF] has not made a decision as to whether to recognize this regime as the government of Honduras", the IMF said in their press release.

The IMF also noted that there is currently no financial agreement in place between the IMF and Honduras.

No, the language isn't pulled from the CEPR press release, which came out on Friday. Many of the more than 70 stories, which you can find using google news, expecially the Spain edition, are 18-20 hours old now, and almost all of them reference a Sunday statement from the IMF, so they couldn't be refering to the CEPR press release. El Heraldo actually came late to the story.

I also immediatly went to the IMF website and failed to find a press release, but frankly, that means nothing. Organizations are slow to put things on their website on weekends and holidays.

Could it be that Gabriela Nuñez doen't know what an SDR is? It isn't something "deposited in an account in the BCH" as Nuñez claims it is. To quote the IMF Fact sheet on Special Drawing Rights (SDRs)

http://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/facts/sdr.htm

"The SDR is neither a currency, nor a claim on the IMF. Rather, it is a potential claim on the freely usable currencies of IMF members. Holders of SDRs can obtain these currencies in exchange for their SDRs in two ways: first, through the arrangement of voluntary exchanges between members; and second, by the IMF designating members with strong external positions to purchase SDRs from members with weak external positions. In addition to its role as a supplementary reserve asset, the SDR, serves as the unit of account of the IMF and some other international organizations."

Thanks for tracking down the source, RNS. The reason I was sure the IMF headquarters hadn't put out the press release is that there were releases up from Monday; they seem to be speedier than many bureaucracies in that area.

Reuters confirms that Gabriela Núñez does not understand the SDR allocated to Honduras. Tuesday a spokesperson for the IMF told Reuters that the de facto government could not convert the SDR into hard currency without the recognition of other IMF members. This means that her statement that the money was already in an account in the BCH was not true. The spokesperson allowed as how it could be counted towards Honduras's international reserves, but it would take recognition, and the agreement to purchase it by another IMF member, for it to be converted into hard currency. The spokesperson went on "In the specific case of Honduras, the actual de facto regime cannot use the SDR until a decision is made as to whether the IMF recognizes this regime as the government of Honduras" .